yes, but is it art

[Anna Balint]

Dear mez, and all,
I find your work coherent when crossposted on different 
list, both from the point of view of form and content 
(predict virality, if I understand well). I also find a lot 
of hypocrisy in the 'destroying the community discourse' 
argument. Art is playing a role in building communities,  
presently more important maybe than theory or narrative.
In [East Europe, where civil society got destroyed in the 
last 50 years] a lot of public places which were emptied 
and lost their social role, such as public baths (several 
Turkish baths in Romania and Hungary), synagogues (many 
synagogues in Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania) or coq 
fight arenas in Spain to mention an example from West 
Europe, became [avant garde] contemporary art centers and 
wilfully assume a role of building communities, sometimes 
political roles as well. Normally the mailing list have the 
same function on the net. 
To ban artists from these spaces... erase the topics they 
bring up... [specially in your case when it is so relevant 
and important] and push a correctness of narrative, is 
destructive and hypocritic. What kind of community can be 
the australian people working with media, when they reject 
to consider, analyse or at least tolerate their content?
It is so difficult to understnad for me, since at least in 
East Europe new media art is deeply rooted in the 
politically engaged avantgarde scene, the world of 
samisdat, underground press involved in all media.
I am totally sorry, if this event affects you, hope you 
will continue your work. We can document and archive the 
banning on the syndicate list [exchange of emails, 
opinions] if you like to do that.
greetings,
anna balint